CMV infection can be seen in anyone at any time, but in most of us infection
occurs when we are young. Usually it is thrown off by the immune system and
often it has no symptoms at all, though it can cause a type of infectious
mononucleosus. In immune compromised patients it can cause a systemic infection
which includes a pneumonia, and it can be fatal. We aee it in AIDS patiens
and in patients who have received stem cell transplants. I have seen it in CLL
after Campath and after fludarabine plus cyclophosphamide. I have never seen
it in untreated CLL. In immunodefficincy you do not catch it, but the virus
that you caught as a chile is reactivated. CMV is a herpes virus like EBV and
Zoster and as such it remains dormant in the body after an infection. When
immunity drops the sleeping virus is awakened. To make the diagnosis of
reactivated CMV it is of no value to measure the antibody, you have to measure the
CMV antigen. There is a treatment - gancyclovir or Foscarnet.